Toronto Geological Discussion Group, Toronto, November 6, 2018,
https://www.tgdg.net/event-3090714

Sorry, but Canada is covered by glacial sediments! But these shall not be considered as a hindrance to exploration, but as a tool. Mineralogy of glacial sediments has long been recognized as a powerful method, enabling not only to detect subtle dispersion trains, but also to characterize the mineralized source. Successes of gold grain counting and kimberlitic indicator minerals are countless.

However, the method is surprisingly artisanal and did not evolved since 40 years, so easy discoveries were made and improvements are desperately needed. Various research groups currently work at defining a vast array of new indicator minerals for various types of mineralization. These methods were, until now, impaired by the incapacity to visually sort these minerals. How do we sort magnetite from IOCG versus those from regional gneisses? The issue is now circumvented by the use of automated mineralogy, a technology that was borrowed from geometallurgy as used in ore dressing. Heavy mineral concentrates are scanned, grain by grain, by automated scanning electron microscope to detect the presence of chemically distinct indicator minerals. One million chemical analyses per day, day after day after day...

The technology is complex, but its efficiency is mind-blowing. And it evolves so quickly that even fashionable QEMSCAN are now heading to museum! A series of red-hot case studies, using rocket-science techniques, will be presented.

The talk will be host by the Toronto Geological Discussion Group, on November 6th, from 4 am to 6 pm, at 20 Toronto Street, 2nd floor, Toronto. Simultaneous Web diffusion will be available, please register at TGDG.

‘There are those who follow the rules... and those who define them!'